Hey there, howdy, hello! Can everyone see this? Good! Then let's get things rolling!
Y'all can call me Crane on here, and I'm a white arospec trans man from the US.
If you tell people to kill themselves over fictional characters I don't know how to help you. Reconnect with nature my guy
I don't like incestuous or pedophilic stuff, so short of analytical content, don't expect that kind of stuff here.
Bluesky account in case Tumblr ever goes to shit
TEAMPEKOSURVIVING2X2 2027 BABYYYYYYYYYYY
Last Update: August/4/2026
Writing Backlog:
Tsumugi-Darumi compare/contrast (can't be done until THL is complete)
Tokonalysis (ongoing)
DR Execution comparisons
Sakuranalysis
OC Backstory- Haru Suzuki
Leonalysis
Game Backlog:
DR2x2 (dropping everything to play this once it releases)
Kill/Cure Beautiful Vice (waiting on ch 1 release)
THL (4/21 routes complete)
Shuten Order (0/5 routes complete)
Kumitantei (if I take long enough I can play the full game at once 💀)
Character Analyses: Taka, Mondo, Sayaka, Hiro, Junko, Hifumi, Toko(WIP)
Asks are (almost) always open! Anons may go down for brief periods after I release a complete analysis though, for preventative measures. The analyses are meant to be as objective as possible, which means they go into some dark shit from time to time. DR is a dark series sometimes lol.
Transfem Chihiro propaganda: unreliable narrator, misogyny breakdown, personal interpretations,
My top 10 DR characters: Tsumugi Shirogane, Toko Fukawa, Sayaka Maizono, Komaru Naegi, Chiaki Nanami, Akane Owari, Maki Harukawa, Peko Pekoyama, Himiko Yumeno, Ryoko Otonashi
I am and always will be a "blue-haired girls VA'd by Dorothy Fahn in their localization" defender. Someone's gotta do it 🫡
My top 10 DR ships: Syomaru, Komahinanami, Kuzupekowari, Sakuraoi, Junkan, Leosaya, Fujisaba, Shiromeno, Shinsai, Irumatsu
+ my sexuality and gender headcanons for anyone interested :D (update I now hc Shuichi as transfem)
I'm watching through the full Pokémon anime! And I'm making a review of each season and movie as I go. Here's a link to the masterpost
I've also been reviewing each THL route as I go if you'd like to read those
My tags:
crane-talk: mostly either me talking about my writing. Usually has updates about my analyseries
crane-talks: same thing as above but there's an 's' at the end
crane campaign: I run a DnD campaign with some friends, and I like to yap about my evil DM plans that they don't know about. If you're one of my players, block this tag plz, ik at least one of you is on here <3
crane's perfect au: little rambles about my ideal Danganronpa au, including but not limited to Celeste Protag, Mikan Mastermind, Angie Antag, etc
dangancoffee: Starbucks orders themed after Danganronpa and fangan characters!
shsl love: any posts about Chiaki Nanami. She's literally the SHSL Love guys
crane's ocs: any posts talking about or drawing my ocs :D I have those btw
screaming at my moots: when I'm yapping about nothing in particular or complaining or whatever
crane-plays: me playing games for the first time and live posting & reacting, essentially
tddr: Danganronpa characters but they're on total drama Island. Why? Uh, for fun, mind your beeswax
crane-plays-2x2: a tag for specifically playing Danganronpa 2x2 once it drops. Be prepared! I will be screaming in digital public about this game >:)
crane-watching: for watching shows/movies instead of playing games. Currently watching the Pokemon anime (Johto League Champions)
crane-replays: for the inevitable multiple replays of the Danganronpa games and other games out there in the world, but mostly you and I both know it'll be Danganronpa games
To be clear, TME/TMA divides are nonsense on the basis that genderqueer, nonbinary, and intersex people do not owe you the knowledge of their assigned sex at birth so you can put a categorical binary label on them. We as a community are capable of recognizing the unique differences between the opporession trans men face versus the kinds that trans women face versus the kinds that all other trans ppl face without inventing a new binary about it.
I don't think I've ever directly stated that, but I'm trans and I think it's important to say.
Tsumugi Shirogane is, at her core, a shitty storyteller. She carries a deep passion but a weak constructive mind for her work, and concerts her writing flaws with bravado and grandiose features in an attempt to distract her chosen audience from her poor strategy. She fills her work with references and callbacks to the history and media that inspired her so, but can never truly create her own work, so she attempts replication and cheap copycat work instead in the hopes that that core connection she felt will carry over. It's full of meaning not because she succeeded, but because she tried. She's a fangirl writing a love letter to her problematic fav, and she's failing spectacularly not from lack of effort, but lack of skill. She's pathetic. She's a total loser, and she knows it, but if people will care about this one thing that she made, just this one thing, it will all have been worth it. And that's why she accepts her death so solemnly, why she doesn't fight back, because despite her failure, she did manage to teach her victims the one thing she could never accept for herself- that their lives mattered regardless of what they provided for others. And that, to me, is why Tsumugi is so endearing not just as a mastermind, but as a character.
Tsumugi Shirogane overstays her welcome because she just refuses to leave. Tsumugi Shirogane loves her series more than life itself and tries so hard to immerse herself into it, only to be rejected and be the puzzle piece that never fits. Tsumugi Shirogane is duped and tricked and forced out of the narrative she wrote because even when she has total control over the creation of the world, there's simply nowhere for her to fit. She joins the student council, yet has no role. She befriends Gonta, yet he betrays her and tries to end her game. She has the wool pulled over her eyes by Kokichi and Kaito alike when they break out of their perfect hero and villain roles together. She makes no meaningful connections in a game all about them. She's a floater with no control over anything, yet truly believes that she's a master manipulator even when she's spouting the most obvious horseshit of all time. She cannot predict what will happen when things go off-script. She covers her poor improv skills with witty one-liners calling to shows and games and movies written by people that were infinitely better than her, people she'd never be able to truly emulate. "Tsumugi Shirogane" isn't even her name. She discarded everything about who she was before to be several works of fiction at once, and it didn't fucking work. Tsumugi Shirogane failed. And that's exactly why, as a character, she succeeded.
"Tsumugi Shirogane" joined Team Danganronpa as a teenage girl, and was surrounded by an echo chamber of like-minded people from a corporation dedicated to making teenagers kill each other for clicks. If they give consent, and sign the dotted line, it doesn't count as murder. Not if they said yes first. Not if the "real" people wanted it. Tsumugi believes that, Team Danganronpa believes that, and every lonely, bored, desperate kid that auditions believes that. Fiction is a way to escape, for viewer, participant, and creator. When you're in Danganronpa, you don't have to be "you" anymore. Let your talent consume you. Let your identity be forfeit. Let it inspire the next person to do the same. Tsumugi could be that for people. She wanted to be that, because she needed it so badly for herself, and she got too ambitious. It's just fiction anyways, fake stories to bring meaning to the "real." If she, the mastermind, is still a member of Team Danganronpa, then maybe she can have her cake and eat it too. She, too, can be part of Danganronpa, and live to the end. Tsumugi Shirogane wanted it all, and believed she would get to have it.
But Tsumugi is a dogshit writer, and an even worse actor. Without the true belief in her SHSL identity, she could never be one of them. And when she entered the game, she could never go back, either. She locked herself out of a good ending for the sake of being important. Her story turned on her. The audience spat in her face. And now, even today, that failure, that arrogance, that sloppiness, is seen as a detriment to the game as a whole, and she's seen as the worst of the worst. But isn't that what makes her realistic? Isn't it that arrogant naivete, "I can go beyond what anyone else has done before", that childishness that makes her human?
Tsumugi was never supposed to be clever, or self-aware. She was always made to feel empty. She wanted to become immortalized in the minds of audiences, but never, ever could. The exact inverse of her beloved Junko Enoshima she idolized, who only ever wanted to feel human. And that desperate need for love is why she's so hated.
Tsumugi Shirogane wrote Kaede to be beautiful- loyal, determined, sexy, idealistic, dead. Tsumugi wrote Kaede to be as attractive as possible both to the other characters and the audience. Kaede became the Ultimate Waifu. Kaede became the tragic stepping stone to Shuichi's story. Kaede became the horny sapphic that pushed the other girls' boundaries for yuri marketing. Kaede attempted to kill her, the mastermind, to save everyone, and be immortalized in the audience's heart. Kaede's murder plot failed- bad luck- and Tsumugi had to bail her and herself out. Kaede was falsely executed. Tsumugi failed.
Tsumugi Shirogane wrote Kaito to be beloved- heroic, masculine, supportive, unwavering, tragic. Tsumugi wrote Kaito to pick Shuichi up, to pick Maki up, to inspire the cast and the audience to dream. Tsumugi wrote Kaito to be the infallible hero that would make Shuichi see who he could be, to become Maki's rock that would teach her to feel. Tsumugi wrote Kaito with the most typical vision of masculinity and romanticized that as a healing light. Kaito was meant to die ripped from the stars, a great despair that would lead to even further hope. Kaito's illness, that Tsumugi gave him, ruined her very own plans. Kaito died with the aspiration she gave him fulfilled, heart filled with peace instead of despair. Kaito's execution failed. Tsumugi failed.
Tsumugi Shirogane wrote Kokichi to be hated- conniving, two-faced, backstabbing, amusing, annoying. She didn't write him to be the mastermind- not at first. Kokichi had a backstory, but Kokichi didn't care. Whoever came before Kokichi, it turned out, was smarter than her, and used that. Kokichi stole her thunder. Kokichi changed the game. Kokichi made a deal with Monokuma- her subordinate- and Kokichi altered the rules without her permission. Kokichi made her backtrack. Kokichi made her panic. Kokichi forced her hand, and when her hand was forced, her backup plan proved to be her worst folly- she leaned on what came before her. Her game was no longer hers. It was his. So she gave it to him, and he reaped the consequences by Maki's bolt. And yet still, he broke that too. Tsumugi failed.
Tsumugi wrote Shuichi to grow- unconfident, dependent, hesitant, fearful, regretful. Kaede and Kaito were designed to banish these parts of him, so he could grow into his role as a lead. Shuichi was meant to learn to believe in hope alongside K1-B0 and Maki, to face the mastermind head on, to defeat her himself and pave the way for the next season. Shuichi was her baby, her main character, the OC that she let take priority over her audience participation promise. Tsumugi wrote Shuichi to be her season's savior. Shuichi became the show's nightmare instead. Shuichi was able to find all her inconsistencies, and used them to dismantle Danganronpa. Shuichi grew, alright, and that proved to be her downfall. Tsumugi really, really failed.
And yet....
Tsumugi wrote Maki to learn. Maki was made cold, distant, broken, cautious. Maki was made an assassin- an ender of lives- an unforgivable cold-blooded killer that could take out anybody with almost any manner of weapon. And then Maki was made to be more. Maki was able to make friends. Maki was allowed to make friends. Maki was no unforgivable. Maki was not cold-blooded. Maki was a person, was made to be, was allowed to be. Maki was not beyond hope. Nobody is beyond hope. Maki fell in love. Maki protected the people she loved. Maki messed up in more ways than one, and yet, she tried. Maki learned to try. And so she was loved. She was wanted. And she survived. Tsumugi succeeded.
Tsumugi wrote Himiko to love. Himiko was deluded and desperate and lonely. Himiko loved her fictitious world of magic. Tsumugi wrote her a fictitious world of magic to love. Himiko was depressed and unmotivated outside of her magic. And then Himiko became more. Himiko was not alone, not with Angie, who believed in what others couldn't see and didn't believe in, not with Tenko, who believed in her. Himiko found motivation right in front of her. Himiko learned that extended beyond them. Himiko didn't have to give up her magic to find more outside of that, and she wasn't demanded to. Himiko was odd and spoke of things nobody else understood or believed, and yet, she wanted to try, for the people she came to love alongside magic. And so she was loved. She was wanted. And she survived. Tsumugi succeeded.
Tsumugi wrote Shuichi to live. Shuichi came to her from a boy that loved Danganronpa as much as she did, that wanted to be as immersed in the game as she wanted to be, that wanted to play a major role and die in that role like she did. He wanted to break convention, be a detective that killed. Tsumugi loved Danganronpa. So did he. So she made him a survivor- her survivor, the detective he dreamed of, but instead of being the calculating rock of stability like priors, he was the one that grew. Tsumugi gave Shuichi friends. Tsumugi gave Shuichi lovers. Tsumugi gave Shuichi despair and hope and love. Tsumugi surrounded Shuichi with love and support. Tsumugi made Shuichi find the beauty in living through Danganronpa. And even when she failed, she still succeeded that boy, because Shuichi was the first detective to kill- he killed Danganronpa itself.
Tsumugi failed in her game in most ways. But when it comes to her survivors- her impact on their lives, the survival of what Danganronpa had originally meant- without even realizing it, Tsumugi succeeded, and they finally found the light at the end of a 53-season-long tunnel.
Tsumugi Shirogane is the best character in Danganronpa because Tsumugi Shirogane is the unabashed love of Danganronpa incarnate into a person. Tsumugi Shirogane loves the story of hope overcoming despair and meaning found in suffering. Tsumugi Shirogane loves the perverse fanservice and ethically questionable exploration of dark topics. Tsumugi Shirogane wrote in repressed queer themes that the game never fully explores in favor of the murders, but are still undoubtedly a driving force of the story. Tsumugi Shirogane wrote zany OCs that only kind of fit into her fictionalized setting that's a cheap knockoff of the original, but still so compelling in its own unique way. There's not a line Tsumugi Shirogane wouldn't cross for her creation, not a thing that could make her stop until death does she part. Tsumugi Shirogane was beautiful, she was hated, and she was whole.
And somewhere deep in the wreckage of her creation, her corpse is squealing in excitement at the 2x2 announcement, too
Never ever watch Miraculous Ladybug because you'll watch the season finale and come out with critiques on their loosey-goosey usage of the miraculous powers and how they'll flip up the rules on a dime for a cool moment, only to go online and find nobody caring and everybody being racist again. God forbid a girl find out her best friend protected the identity of the terrorist that threatened to kill her family and react in any way other than perfectly calm understanding
"The new holder of the butterfly miraculous came into my house and threatened my family Alya!" Yeah Marinette, that really sucks, and nobody should have their family threatened by a supervillain. Reminds me of a time. When the old holder of the butterfly miraculous. Came into Alya's house. And threatened her family. Remember that? Remember how YOU WERE THERE?? Remember when he made a sentimonster in the shape of her boyfriend and used it to threaten the lives of her parents and sisters and YOU, HER BEST FRIEND???
The craziest part wasn't learning how many people wanted Marinette to take Alya's miraculous for it, either. It's that there are people advocating for making her new right-hand Zoe. Fucking Zoe. Y'know, the character going around Ladybug and doing vigilante work against her wishes? The one member of the Miraculers that we as an audience KNOW won't just fall in line to what Marinette wants? That's not even a knock on Zoe, the vigilante arc is something interesting for her character, but she would NOT make for a good new stand-in as opposed to Alya!
We can be given on a silver platter an example of Alya being perfectly capable of performing her duties as a superhero and setting aside her personal feelings for the sake of the greater good while still holding Marinette accountable, and people will complain because she wasn't black-best-friending happily enough. I firmly believe that Alya was completely justified confronting Marinette for that cover-up. She wasn't being too mean, she wasn't being a bad friend. Marinette was being a bad friend for lying to her, the same way Ladybug was being a bad hero lying to the world and Chat Noir and Adrien.
And of course it's worth mentioning that she's standing on business not just for herself, but for Adrien, because Adrien is her friend and she wants to look out for him when Marinette has been dipping into far too controlling territory this season(Alya herself had to explain to Marinette why his seeing a therapist was a good thing and that he should have support from ppl other than her) and withheld the truth from him to the point that he's now planning a museum of lies in his father's honor. Adrien deserves to know the truth about his abusive father instead of being gaslit by his own partner that his abuser was a hero when she knows he was anything but. Alya is right and Marinette is wrong and Adrien deserves the truth, and that is very much the point. Alya is right. She is right
Reminding ppl of this because the steam key prize is luck-based. You don't have to be a particularly good or popular artist to win, you just have to be lucky!
Have any of us even *considered* that because Slayhem is playable from the beginning by consciously choosing it on a menu screen, they can give us a new protagonist among the cast from the get-go? Like, we could choose that Slayhem billboard and just start hearing some other mf doing the intro soliloquy and then we'll all go !!!!!!!
Like they don't have to Kaede our asses!!! We could just get new protagonist right away!!!! Wouldn't it be beautiful? Wouldn't it be wonderful?
I'm doubling down on this btw. After the Kaede Incident of '17 I simply have no faith in the truthfulness of any promotional material that isn't straight gameplay. That selection screen between original mode and slayhem mode is basically the only thing I trust to be true and real and factual(I mean, the updated sprites are real, but that's not like, story-related, you feel me). That shot of Hajime and Nagito looking at the boat could be followed by a second cg of Character #3 walking up and standing in between them, or a zoomout to Character #3 eavesdropping. The prologue being the same before "the incident that changes the scenario" could be *technically* true but played from another character's perspective. Idk I just think we shouldn't be taking anything about this game for granted, especially when it pertains to Mr Hinata
